Miles Axe Copeland, Jr.
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Miles Axe Copeland Jr. (July 16, 1916 – January 14, 1991) was an American musician, businessman, and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer best known for his relationship with Egyptian leader
Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...
and his public commentary on intelligence matters. Copeland participated in numerous covert operations, including the
March 1949 Syrian coup d'état The March 1949 Syrian coup d'état was a bloodless coup d'état that took place on 30 March, and was the first military coup in modern Syrian history which overthrew the country's democratically elected government. It was led by the Syrian Army c ...
and the
1953 Iranian coup d'état The 1953 Iranian coup d'état, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup d'état ( fa, کودتای ۲۸ مرداد), was the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in favor of strengthening the monarchical rule of ...
. A conservative influenced by the ideas of James Burnham, Copeland was associated with the American political magazine '' National Review''. In a 1986 '' Rolling Stone'' interview, he stated "Unlike '' The New York Times'',
Victor Marchetti Victor Leo Marchetti Jr. (December 23, 1929 – October 19, 2018) was a special assistant to the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency who later became a prominent critic of the United States Intelligence Community and the Israel l ...
and
Philip Agee Philip Burnett Franklin Agee (; January 19, 1935 – January 7, 2008)Will Weissert"Ex-CIA Agent Philip Agee Dead in Cuba" Associated Press (sfgate.com), January 9, 2008. was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) case officer and writer of t ...
, my complaint has been that the CIA isn't overthrowing enough anti-American governments or assassinating enough anti-American leaders, but I guess I'm getting old."


Background and family life

The son of a doctor, Copeland was born in Birmingham, Alabama.Cook, Joan (Jan. 19, 1991)
"Miles Copeland, 74, Expert on Mideast, Writer and Ex-Spy"
(
obituary An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...
). '' New York Times''. p. 18. Archived fro
the original.
/ref> He did not graduate from college. According to history professor Hugh Wilford, there is nothing in Copeland's CIA files to suggest he was a professional musician, but "several relatives and friends have testified to his musical ability." Copeland's books contain "several impressive statements about his days as a jazz musician," including that "he spent a week playing fourth trumpet in the
Glenn Miller Alton Glen Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band founder, owner, conductor, composer, arranger, trombone player and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the United States Arm ...
orchestra," although this claim has been discredited. Copeland was married to archaeologist Lorraine Adie. He was the father of music manager Miles Copeland III, booking agent
Ian Copeland Ian Adie Copeland (April 25, 1949 – May 23, 2006) was an American music promoter and booking agent who helped launch the new wave movement in the United States. Early life Copeland was born in Rif Dimashq near Damascus, Syria, the second of ...
, film producer Lorraine (Lennie) Copeland, and drummer Stewart Copeland, a founding member of the rock band The Police.


Career


CIA founding

At the outbreak of World War II, Copeland joined the National Guard, and contacted Rep. John Sparkman of Alabama, who arranged a meeting with
William J. Donovan William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan (January 1, 1883 – February 8, 1959) was an American soldier, lawyer, intelligence officer and diplomat, best known for serving as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the Bur ...
. The two hit it off immediately, but Copeland nonetheless was not recruited to Donovan's
Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
(OSS) and instead joined the Corps of Intelligence Police, which became the
Counterintelligence Corps The Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC) was a World War II and early Cold War intelligence agency within the United States Army consisting of highly trained special agents. Its role was taken over by the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps in 1961 and ...
(CIC) in January 1942. Meyer, Karl E. and
Shareen Blair Brysac Shareen Blair Brysac is an author of non-fiction books and a former dancer, television producer/director/writer. Biography Brysac was born in Denver, Colorado, and graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University. While at Barnard, she atten ...
(2009). ''Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East''. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. pp. 348–380. .
Copeland was stationed in London and reportedly gained the top-secret " Bigot" clearance and took part in discussions about
Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The operat ...
. After the conversion of the OSS into the
Strategic Services Unit The Strategic Services Unit was an intelligence agency of the United States government that existed in the immediate post–World War II period. It was created from the Secret Intelligence and Counter-Espionage branches of the wartime Office of ...
on 1 October 1945, Copeland joined what would become part of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Serving in London, he became a lifelong Anglophile. He married Lorraine Adie, a Scot he had met during the war when she was serving in the Special Operations Executive.


CIA career

After the end of World War II and the creation of the CIA, Copeland was asked to organize the agency’s information-gathering unit in the Middle East. He was stationed in Damascus, Syria, as a CIA case officer under the cover title "cultural attaché," beginning a long career in the Middle East. Together with Stephen Meade (1913–2004) he played a role in supporting the
March 1949 Syrian coup d'état The March 1949 Syrian coup d'état was a bloodless coup d'état that took place on 30 March, and was the first military coup in modern Syrian history which overthrew the country's democratically elected government. It was led by the Syrian Army c ...
."BBC Miles Copeland Interview 1969,"
BBC.co.uk
Working with
Kim Roosevelt Kermit Roosevelt Jr. (February 16, 1916 – June 8, 2000) was an American intelligence officer who served in the Office of Strategic Services during and following World War II. A grandson of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United ...
, he was instrumental in arranging Operation Ajax, the 1953 technical coup d'état against Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh.Buckley, Priscilla L. (Feb. 11, 1991)
"Miles Copeland, R I P - former CIA official"
(
obituary An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...
). '' National Review''.
In 1953, Copeland returned to private life at the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton while remaining a non-official cover operative for the CIA. He traveled to Cairo to meet
Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...
, who had overthrown King Farouk and taken power in Egypt, advising Nasser on the development of the Mukhabarat and becoming Nasser's closest Western advisor. Copeland opposed major paramilitary CIA operations such as the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961 on the grounds that they were impossible to keep secret due to their size. Copeland was known for his "Machiavellian sense of pessimism about human nature", which he derived in part from ''The Machiavellians'', a book written by his "intellectual mentor", the Trotskyist-turned-conservative James Burnham. Copeland requested Burnham's "advice about ways to shore up revolutionary governments" and distilled Burnham's teachings into three key points: 1) The major priority of any government is perpetuating its rule; 2) Political leaders must remain cognizant of the irrationality of their subjects; and 3) A successful revolution requires a certain degree of political repression, although it is more advantageous if repression is kept to a minimum. In ''The Game Player'', Copeland recounted that he was sent to Egypt to assess the feasibility of assassinating Nasser "on the tacit understanding that he would reach a negative assessment" and thus "discourage any British attempt".
Arriving in Cairo, Miles immediately confessed his mission to Nasser, whereupon the old friends began gaming out possible assassination plots. "How about poison?" the American asked the Egyptian. "Suppose I just wait until you turn your head and then slip a pill into your coffee?" "Well, there's Hassan standing right there," replied Nasser. "If I didn't see you Hassan would." "But maybe we could bribe a servant to poison the coffee before bringing it in?" "The coffee would only kill the taster." And so the conversation carried on—at least in Miles's recollection.


Retirement

Copeland retired from the CIA in May 1957 to start the consulting firm Copeland & Eichelberger in Beirut, Lebanon, with his CIC and CIA colleague James Eichelberger; he did, however, continue to perform assignments for the Agency on request. Copeland and his family returned to London in 1970. He made regular appearances on British television as an intelligence expert and pursued work in journalism, writing books on foreign policy, an autobiography, and contributing to the conservative American magazine ''National Review''. He helped Waddingtons design a board game, ''The Game of Nations'', in which superpowers compete for influence in "the imaginary region of Kark"; the game was loosely based on Copeland's book of the same name. Copeland's memoirs have a strong literary quality and contain many embellishments, making it difficult to gauge the historical accuracy of the covert operations he describes. He was active in 1970s political efforts to defend the CIA against critics, including the
Church Committee The Church Committee (formally the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities) was a US Senate select committee in 1975 that investigated abuses by the Central Intelligence ...
. In 1988, he wrote an article titled "Spooks for Bush" which asserted that the intelligence community overwhelmingly supported
George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
for president; he had named Bush his favorite CIA director.


Books


''The Game of Nations: The Amorality of Power Politics''.
New York: Simon and Schuster; London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1969). * ''Without Cloak or Dagger: The Truth About the New Espionage''. New York: Simon and Schuster (1974). ** Published in the United Kingdom as ''Real Spy World''. London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld a ...
(1974). * ''Beyond Cloak and Dagger: Inside the CIA''. New York: Pinnacle Books (1975). * ''The Game Player: Confessions of the CIA's Original Political Operative''. London:
Aurum Press The Quarto Group is a global illustrated book publishing group founded in 1976. It is domiciled in the United States and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Quarto creates and sells illustrated books for adults and children, across 50 countri ...
(1989).


References


Bibliography

* Copeland, Miles, Jr. (1969) ''The Game of Nations: The Amorality of Power Politics''. * Copeland, Miles, Jr. (1989). ''The Game Player: Confessions of the CIA's Original Political Operative''. London:
Aurum Press The Quarto Group is a global illustrated book publishing group founded in 1976. It is domiciled in the United States and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Quarto creates and sells illustrated books for adults and children, across 50 countri ...
. * * Meyer, Karl E. and
Shareen Blair Brysac Shareen Blair Brysac is an author of non-fiction books and a former dancer, television producer/director/writer. Biography Brysac was born in Denver, Colorado, and graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University. While at Barnard, she atten ...
(2009). ''Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East''. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. pp. 348–380. . *


External links


Miles Copeland, Jr.
at IMDb {{DEFAULTSORT:Copeland, Miles Jr. American Cold War spymasters 1916 births 1991 deaths Military personnel from Birmingham, Alabama Musicians from Birmingham, Alabama American jazz trumpeters American male trumpeters American spies Booz Allen Hamilton people Cold War spies Board game designers 20th-century American musicians 20th-century trumpeters The Police Copeland family Jazz musicians from Alabama American male jazz musicians CIA operatives in Iran American expatriates in Iran American expatriates in the United Kingdom Alabama National Guard personnel CIA activities in the Middle East 20th-century American male musicians People of the Office of Strategic Services